Georgia, again

A couple of days ago shots were fired near, if not at, Georgia's president while driving near South Ossetia.

Now comes word that. the Russian mayor of a North Ossetian town has been murdered.

It may be a much warmer winter than the weatherman said.

Russo-Georgian War

Map from the BBC

It appears that the slip-sliding is over, and it's now war.

Georgia states that they have withdrawn from South Ossetia and that Russian troops control the capital.

Drudge is linking to this story in the Daily Mail calling this The Pipeline War. Just as Not a sheep postulated in a post I linked to earlier.

Numerous outlets report that the Russians have bombed the Georgian capital of Tblisi, a pipeline, and a military airfield and/or the civilian airport in Tblisi. And the Russian navy is deploying to interdict military supplies going into Georgia.

France holds the presidency of the EU. While even the UN could rouse itself for a meeting on the weekend, the EU will wait:

France, which holds the EU presidency, announced that it would host a meeting of European foreign ministers early next week and an emergency EU summit could be held.

The European Union "strongly states its commitment to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and its internationally recognised borders and urges Russia to respect them," said a statement released by France.

The EU "underscores that the military actions (against Georgia) could affect EU-Russian relations," it added.

This war has been warming up for a long time. Here's a video of a Russian fighter shooting down a Georgian UAV:

Which Candidate Said What?

As Russia and Georgia slip-slide closer to all out war, which candidate said what?

I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.

Compare that to:

Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences for Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave.

The government of Georgia has called for a cease-fire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course it has chosen. We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia.

Hmm. One starts with "I" and has the magical "now is the time", while the other is firm and coherent. Still not sure? Check the originals:


Obama, McCain

Via Michelle Malkin, Commentary does it better than me...

A war for oil? A thought on the Russo-Georgian war

When I see a blog with the name "Not a sheep", and the url notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com, well, I just have to click. It's like an OCD thing, or something.

It's a Brit blog with well thought out posts. This post on the "hidden" casus belli ...oil. Or control of how it's transported:

Lead paragraphs:

It's odd, when the US lead force invaded Iraq to rid the Country of Saddam Hussein the BBC was awash with "experts" and pundits explaining how this is all about oil. Yet when the Russians invade Georgia the word "oil" is not heard. Yet this invasion really is about oil.

In case you are not aware, Georgian oil can flow out of that country in two ways, either through Turkey and hence into Europe or through Russia. Putin wants to ensure that as much of the world's oil as possible flows through Russia's pipelines so he can have as much bargaining power and control over Europe's power supply. The Georgians know that their independence relies as much as anything on the continued use of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a pipeline that connects the Caspian Sea's oilfields to Baku, then to Tbilisi and finally onto the Haydar Aliyev oil Terminal in the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

As I posted earlier, I see a harmonic of Nazi justifications for the Sudetenland invasion. "Not a goat" does me one better... He see similarities in the reactions to Russia's aggression:

I heard someone on Radio 4's Question Time last night saying that this invasion was all the West's fault (especially the Americans) for being so triumphalist at the ending of the Cold War and by humiliating Russia. These are very similar to the excuses that were made in the early 1930s for Nazi Germany; Germany was humiliated after the First World War by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and so it is understandable that they want to assert themselves and invade Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia etc.

As the saying in the blogosphere goes, "Read the whole thing"....

Not quite "Some damned fool thing in the Balkans"...

But this could be close. Russian tanks have been sent in to South Ossetia… which is actually a northern part of Georgia.

The Georgians have been fighting “separatists” with ties to Russia for years. It appears that Putin and his meat-puppet are becoming even more transparent:

Russian tanks have entered Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, says Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Georgia has been fighting separatists with ties to Russia in order to regain control of the province, which has had de facto independence since the 1990s.

Georgia is reported to have said any involvement of Russian forces in the conflict will result in a state of war.

Amid international calls for restraint, Russia's president promised to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia.

Moscow's defence ministry said more than 10 of its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia had been killed and 30 wounded in the Georgian offensive. At least 15 civilians are also reported dead.

Sounds too much like protecting ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland to me.

Medvedev believes the presence of a Russian is all the authority he needs:

Amid reports of Russian deaths, President Dmitry Medvedev said: "I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are," Interfax news agency reported.

In a word: “Uh, oh.”